The Artist (2011)

The Artist Synopsis

Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky's the limit - major movie stardom awaits. The Artist tells the story of their interlinked destinies.

The following list is a celebration of the movies that made us feel nostalgic. It’s a tribute to the films that made us fall in love with the past, and most of all, it’s a wink to The Artist which celebrated Hollywood’s Golden Age so enthusiastically and touchingly. The story arcs and events they portray might be fictional, but in all the details, they seem genuine and at their best, inviting.

Now The Artist will have the chance to add a bit more to that box office tally. The Weinstein Company has announced it's re-releasing The Artist in theaters this weekend, in time for Mother's Day and offering up an alternative to the weekend's only other major release, Dark Shadows

The Lorax... a record breaker? Given its bland marketing and so-so response from critics it was unlikely, but if Sunday's estimated numbers are proven correct, the CG rendition of Dr. Seuss story will not only be the top opening of the year so far, it will also have narrowly received the highest ever opening for a non-sequel animated film.

It was a little hard during last night's Oscars to see this as the same Academy that changed their rules for The Dark Knight. Just two years after the Academy expanded the Best Picture category to 10, then swooned over genre movies like District 9 or pop cultural mashups like Inglourious Basterds, they handed us the 2011 nominees

As I’m sure you are aware, the Academy Awards were held tonight and some of the best movies of 2011 were awarded Oscars for their achievements. But the timespan between January 1st and December 31st is a long there are new movies being released every single weekend. As a result, there’s a good chance that a) you might not have seen every title that won an award tonight and/or b) you might have missed our coverage of said title. Well, you’re in luck.

This year it's likely the Spirits and the Oscars will match up pretty closely-- The Artist took home the two top prizes, Best Picture and Best Director for Michel Hazanavicius, along with Best Male Lead for Jean Dujardin--all three prizes are likely to go to The Artist tonight. The French silent film also took Best Cinematography. The Descendants

A silent film’s about to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards? Pfft. Scrat, the acorn-hunting squirrel at the front of every Ice Age movie has been cranking out largely silent short films for years now. But to show there’s no real hard feelings, the Ice Age team put together this little tribute to Michel Hazanavicius’ black-and-white ode to classic filmmaking.

Even Andy Richter seemed to know that Conan's pre-Oscar tribute to The Artist was a little half-thought out-- mostly it seemed like Conan wanted a chance to shake his gangly legs and tap dance on the desk. But really, who can blame him for that, especially when he slaps on a pencil-thin mustache and big grin

Today brings us round two, still full of technical prizes, but with some standout categories like Best Original Score and Best Original Song, as well as a few hotly contested spots, where it's basically Academy favorites Hugo and The Artist duking it out to see who's prettier

While The Artist is set in Hollywood's Golden Age and certainly revels in allusions to some of the era's masterworks, it hardly paints a glossy picture of its setting. Instead, Hollywood is portrayed as a fickle community that will celebrate its stars one moment and leave them in the gutter the next

Most Americans have probably barely even heard of Best Picture frontrunner The Artist, much less seen it, which makes it a really odd choice for an SNL parody sketch. And yet, the "French Dance" sketch from Saturday's SNL, featuring a surprise guest appearance by The Artist star Jean Dujardin

The big show is almost here. On Sunday February 26th, millions of people will gather around, eat some party mix, whip out their ballots, and watch some of the most talented artists in filmmaking get rewarded for their hard work and skill at the Academy Awards. But while we’re not quite there yet, there are some other major awards shows going on. We already had the Golden Globes a few weeks ago, and now we have the results of the British Academy Film Awards, also known as The BAFTAs.

Goofiness aside, this is a pretty sharply executed critique of what Hollywood does to extraordinary leading men from Europe, relegating them to broadly written antagonist roles in action movies opposite square-jawed American stars. We especially love our bad guys with British and German accents in particular, so it's a good thing Dujardin has picked up enough English to be able to affect a slew of campy bad guy intonations. Just give the guy a prop gun, and look at him go!

Anyone who has seen Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist knows that the movie's real highlight is Uggie the Dog, who plays the canine best friend of star Jean Dujardin. In the movie he is so well-trained and does so many great stunts that it make you want to spit on the first dog you see walking out of the theater. But while Uggie seems like the most well trained dog in the world while watching The Artist, the truth is that he probably didn't get it right on the first take every single time.

Living my life the way I do, completely immersed in new movie releases and especially awards season, I aways find it amazing when people buy a ticket to a movie expecting something totally different. It's true that the posters and trailers for The Artist haven't proclaimed "This is a silent movie!" but it is in black and white, which has to be at least some kind of tip-off

The BAFTA Awards may be the British equivalent of the Oscars, but in their picks of nominees for their annual film awards they tend to have a far more international slant. Though homegrown products like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and My Week With Marilyn racked up impressive numbers of nominations

Actors might want to start thinking about not using the word "rape" when not referring to anything other than sexual assault. In the past few years alone both Kristen Stewart and Johnny Depp found themselves in hot water when they used the term to describe being photographed and had to later apologize for using the term. Now screen legend Kim Novak has uttered the PR-nightmarish word, but instead of referring to getting her picture taken...

No production schedule has yet been announced for The Search, but it's likely Hazanavicius' multi-director effort Les Infidels will hit theaters first. Similar in premise to the shorts collection Paris, je t'aime, this film will feature short films—in this case on the subject of infidelity--from a number of French luminaries that include Hazanavicius and The Artist's leading man Jean Dujardin.

The BFCAs cover all the categories done by the Oscars-- yes, including Best Sound-- and then add a few of their own to the end, so instead of going through each category individually it seems easier to simply look for surprises. They nominated six people in each acting category-- all the better to predict the Oscars with, my dear

With the movie awards season in full swing, several critic's groups met today to award their prizes for the best of the year, and while the love was spread all over the place-- there is definitely no runaway critical success like The Hurt Locker or The Social Network this year-- one film seemed to get the lion's share of attention

It's been a pretty good week for Michel Hazanavicius. The French director saw his new film The Artist open strong in limited release over the holiday, bringing in more than $200,000 on just 6 screens, partly thanks to the kind of ecstatic reviews that inevitably result in awards attention

But if you spent your Thanksgiving holiday seeing The Muppets, Arthur Christmas, Hugo and all the rest, you're either seeing Shame in limited release this weekend or totally stuck without options. Or are you?

The French film wasn't the only one to benefit across the board yesterday, though. After picking up its Gotham award Tree of Life also got honors for its two actors, Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, from the New York critics; even though it was left out of the Indie Spirits entirely (likely because it cost too much)

Following rules that the Oscars don't allow, the critics awarded Brad Pitt their Best Actor prize for two separate 2011 movies, Tree of Life and Moneyball, and did the same for his Tree of Life co-star Jessica Chastain, naming her Best Supporting Actress for that film along with The Help and Take Shelter

The Independent Spirit Awards have announced the nominees for their annual prizes, which will be handed out on February 25, the day before the Oscars. True to form, the Indie Spirits recognized a number of films that won't show up at all for Oscar consideration, like Another Earth and Terri

In The Artist, our hero George Valentin is a silent film star who finds himself left behind by the times, sticking to his old-fashioned silent acting while the rest of Hollywood moves on to talkies and sound. The actor who plays George, Jean Dujardin, has all the charisma and visual appeal that any silent actor would need

The most interesting thing about this announcement is the fact that it comes just a day before the fest is due to begin. Talk about coming in just under the wire. I’m thrilled to see new films from Martin Scorsese, David Cronenberg, Werner Herzog, and Wim Wenders on the roster. As a psychology nerd, Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, an examination of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, is particularly high on my list of must-sees.